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The Global Gender Gap Report 2008: Country Highlights and Profiles
Country Highlights
Germany, which held 5th place in the 2006 rankings and 7th place in the 2007 rankings, has fallen in the rankings for the third consecutive year. Gaps on both economic and political participation have become larger, as the perceptions of business leaders regarding wage equality for similar work have become worse and the number ofwomen in ministerial positions has fallen. The United Kingdom also slides in the rankings for the third consecutive year, from 9th place in the 2006 rankings, 11th place in the 2007 rankings to 13th place in the 2008 rankings. Switzerland gains 26 places in the ranking based on very substantial increases in the percentageof women in parliament and those in ministerial level positions. France improves considerably for the third consecutive year and shows the biggest gain in ranks (36 places) and scores out of all 128 countries covered in both 2007 and 2008. Its performance is driven by gains in both the economic participation and opportunity subindex as well as the political empowerment subindex.This is based on an improvement in perceived wage equality, in percentage of women amonglegislators, senior officials and managers, in percentage of women in parliament and finally, inpercentage of women among ministerial level positions, where France now ranks 4th in the world.
Spain, previously in 10th place, loses 7 places this year, due to a slightly larger gap in perceived wage equality for similar work and percentage of women among ministerial level positions,
Lithuania (23), Belgium (28), Austria (29), Belarus (33), Bulgaria (36), Estonia (37) and Portugal (39) follow next in the rankings. Lithuania falls 9 places this year, affected by a drop in The Russian Federation (42) gains 4 spots in the rankings this year, driven by narrowing gaps on the economic participation subindex, where the country now ranks in 16th place globally. However, in terms of political empowerment, the Russian Federation is far below average, holding the 100th position in the rankings for this subindex. Croatia (46) and Macedonia (53) display some of the largest losses in the region, losing 30 and 18 places respectively. Poland (49) is among the gainers, having climbed up 11 places from last year due to gains in the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers as well as in ministerial level positions. The Slovak Republic (64), in addition to Finland, France and Latvia, is one of four European countries that have achieved gender parity on both education and health. However, relative to its own performance in 2007, the country loses 9 places in the rankings due to the more significant improvements in other countries. Italy (67) gains 18 places in the rankings this year. The data show very significant improvements in the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers, members of parliament and in ministerial level positions. Czech Republic (69), Romania (70), Greece (75), Cyprus (76) and Armenia (78) follow next, with Romania showing the biggest losses among these. Georgia (82), Malta (83), Albania (87) and Turkey (123) occupy some of the lowest positions in the rankings. Georgia and Albania fall in the rankings by 15 and 21 places respectively as political participation gaps widen considerably in both countries. Turkey’s performance relative to its own performance in 2007 shows a slight improvement, driven by gains in education and political empowerment, but women’s economic participation shrinks further as gaps on wage equality for similar work widen.
North America Canada (31) falls 13 places this year and ranks behind the United States for the first time since the Global Gender Gap Index was launched three years ago. Canada saw a minimal increase in the economic participation and opportunity index score, driven by smaller gender gaps on labour force participation, estimated earned income and legislator, senior official and manager positions, but otherwise showed losses on both the educational attainment subindex and the political empowerment subindex. On political empowerment, Canada lost ground mainly on the percentage of women among those holding ministerial level positions.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Costa Rica (32), Panama (34) and Ecuador (35) follow next. Costa Rica has fallen 4 places in the rankings despite a slight overall improvement in its scores. This is partially due to the more significant overall improvements of other countries as well and partially due to the introduction of a new country (Barbados) that enters the rankings above Costa Rica. Both Panama and Ecuador showed strong improvements in scores and in the corresponding rankings. Jamaica (44), Honduras (47), Peru (48), Colombia (50), Uruguay (54) and Venezuela (59) hold the middle rankings in the region. Honduras moved up 21 spots mainly due to sizeable increases in the number of women legislators, senior officials and managers (73rd to 12th position) and
Colombia, the highest ranking Latin American country in 2006, dropped 25 places compared to last year due to a slightly lower ratio in primary education and a lower number of
Chile (65) makes a remarkable climb up the rankings by 21 spots, from 86th place in 2007. Chile loses some ground on economic participation and opportunity (105th to 106th place), but Nicaragua (71) and Brazil (73) follow next in the rankings. Brazil (73) moves up one spot in theoverall rankings from 74th place in 2007. While there were small gains in women’s labour force participation, and wage gaps narrowed, the country’s position on the economic participation and opportunity subindex remained virtually unchanged. By contrast, new data on enrolment in primary education helps to place Brazil among the 24 countries that have fully closed gender gaps in education.
Suriname(79), Bolivia (80), Belize (86), Mexico (97), Paraguay (100) and Guatemala (112) occupy the lowest positions in the region. Suriname and Paraguay show some of the biggest
Middle East and North Africa
For the third consecutive year Kuwait (101) holds the second spot in the region, favoured inparticular by higher-than-average performances on economic participation and educational
Kuwait is followed in the rankings by Tunisia (103), Jordan (104), the United Arab Emirates (105), Syria (107), Mauritania (110), Algeria (111), Oman (118), Qatar (119), Bahrain (121), Tunisia’s improvements were driven by gains in economic participation and educational attainment, both of which in turn were driven by narrower gaps in labour force participation, estimated earned income and literacy rates. Jordan makes some of the largest gains across the board, driven by improvements in labour force participation, estimated earned income, literacy rates, women in parliament and women in ministerial level positions. In the United Arab Emirates, minor losses in economic participation are compensated by larger gains in educational attainment and political empowerment, building upon the considerable gains made in last year’s report, after both women and men stood for election and voted for the first time in that country’s history and nine women entered Parliament gaining 22.5 percent of the seats. These economies are starting to reap the rewards of investment in women’s education, resulting in higher enrolment rates and literacy rates, and will now have to focus efforts to better integrate these women into the economy as a part of the overall drive to create jobs for the region’s youth.i Egypt, one of the largest economies in the region, makes small gains in both economic participation and political empowerment, but its overall performance remains among the worst in the world and the region. In Morocco, while the overall performance places this country among the bottom three in the region, the notable gains in the number of women in ministerial level positions help improve Morocco’s performance relative to last year. Saudi Arabia, after making gains in scores last year, falls on both scores and ranks in 2008, due toa correction to the data on the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers, and losses on wage equality for similar work. These are only partially offset by gains in literacy rates. Saudi Arabia remains the lowest ranking country in the region on political empowerment. Finally, Yemen continues to occupy the last place in the region as well as in the overall rankings, remaining the only country in the world to have closed less than 50% of its gender gap, although it makes gains on economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment this year.
Asia and Oceania
Mongolia (40), Kyrgyz Republic (41) and Kazakhstan (45) occupy the next highest rankings in Asia, followed by Thailand (52), Uzbekistan (55) and China (57). China gains 16 places in the rankings, boosted by narrowing gaps among legislators, senior officials and mangers, professional and technical workers, parliamentary positions and ministerial level positions. China continues to be one of the lowest ranking countries on the health and survival subindex (126) due to a disproportionate sex ratio at birth that contributes to China’s “missing women” phenomenonii. Vietnam (68), a new addition in 2007, falls 26 spots this year due to losses in both economic and political participation. Singapore (84), Tajikistan (89), Bangladesh (90) and Maldives (91) fall into the middle of the rankings in the region but perform below the world median. Bangladesh climbs 11 places in the rankings and is distinctive for being the second highest ranking country in South Asia, after Sri Lanka, and is the highest ranking Muslim-majority country in the index, followed closely by Indonesia (93). Cambodia (94), Malaysia (96), Japan (98) appear next in the rankings. Japan has among the widest gaps on economic participation (102) and political empowerment (107), contributing to its low ranking. Brunei Darussalam (99) is one of two new countries added to the Index in 2008. Korea (108) loses ground on wage equality (on both perceived wage equality for similar work and for overall estimated earned income), percentage of women among technical and professional workers, and on gaps in net secondary and gross tertiary enrolment. India (113), Iran (116), Nepal (120) and Pakistan (127) continue to hold some of the lowest positions in the Asian rankings, but on average all four countries post gains relative to their own performances in 2006 and 2007, signifying a positive trend. While much work needs to be done across the board in all four countries, in particular to close gender gaps in education, India, Nepal and Pakistan are distinctive for performing above average in political empowerment.
New Zealand (5) and Australia (21) continue to perform well in the rankings. Both countries have fully closed the gap on the educational attainment subindex and both perform well on economic participation indicators. Between 2007 and 2008, both countries show gains on economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment. Sub-Saharan Africa South Africa (22) slips down two spots relative to its performance last year due to the greatly improved performance of countries such as Switzerland, France, Lesotho and Mozambique, all of which cross South Africa in the rankings. However, relative to its own performance last year, South Africa makes small gains in both educational attainment and political empowerment.
Namibia (30) shows a steady performance, continuing to display narrow gaps on political empowerment but losing ground on education as new data becomes available for tertiary
Botswana (63) loses ten places in the rankings this year due to the relatively more significant achievements of other countries. Relative to its own performance, Botswana shows an overall Madagascar (74), Ghana (77), Malawi (81), Gambia (85), Kenya (88), Zimbabwe (92) and Mauritius (95) occupy the middle rankings in the region, but fall below the world median. Among the lowest ranking countries, Nigeria (102), Mali (109), Mauritania (110), Burkina Faso (116) and Cameroon (117) all show improvements relative to their rankings in 2007. Zambia (106), Angola (114), Ethiopia (122), Benin (126) and Chad (129) fall further, displaying wideninggender gaps.
Albania
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